Yugoslav home computers of the 80's When the whole world started making home computers, former Yugoslavia had an import law that practically forbade import of such machines. In 1984 the first Yugoslav home computer appeared (completely open source, by today's standards) and started a revolution in home computing... Who am I... ● Passionate about old 8-,16- and 32-bit home computers (not x86 PC!) ● One of the founders of Once Uopn a Byte nonprofit organization, www.onceuponabyte.org Night of Museums Novi Sad, 2012 Night of Museums, Novi Sad, 2013 LUGoNS BarCamp 1,2 BalCCon 2013 Novi Sad More professional background... ● Linux user and promoter since 2006, member of Linux User Group of Novi Sad www.lugons.org – BalCCon, LUGoNS BarCamp ● Teaching assistant/assistant professor at Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad ● zzarko at lugons.org, uns.ac.rs Yugoslavia, 1956 CER-10, 1956-1960 CER-12, 1971 World, 1971-1977 1975 1974 1971 1976 1975, 8080A 1976, 6502 1977, Z80 World, 1977-1984 1982 1983 1981 Z80A 6502 Z80A 1981 1977 9900 6502 1979 6502 1981 6502 1981 1982 6502A 6510 Home computers in Yugoslavia, 1980- 1984 ● 50DM limit on import of any foreign goods ● Relatively poor domestic integrated circuit industry, no microprocessors ● Draconian import charges ● 1982: EL-82, Z80, 16kB RAM, 6000DM So, how could average person (salary) in Yugoslavia obtain a home computer? First solution... CUSTOMS Smuggling, of course! [ It's a dishwasher part... “Spectrum Superwash”... Beleive me... See, it's made of rubber, that's because of all the water... ] ...second... Legally importing foreign computers, and selling them for 2,3 or more times the price outside Yugoslavia … and finally, the third one! A vision of one man – VoJa Antonić 1983 2013 How to make an affordable computer 1. Video output 2. BASIC 3. Few parts Z80A 6KiB RAM 4KiB ROM 64x48 pix 32x16 chr 4. Single-sided PCB Peripherals EAR and MIC Public response to GalaksiJa Over 8000 kits were sold Commercial version, 600DM As many as the constructors... GalaksiJa today ● 2011 – microGalaksija, Dragan Toroman, Dušan Grujić, http://galaksija.petnica.rs/ GalaksiJa today ● 2012 - CMOS Galaksija, Tomaž Šolc and his “The Ultimate Galaksija Talk” presented at CCC, http://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/articles/galaksija/ Other computers Lola 8 and 8A Many CP/M clones Pecom 32 and 64 TIM 011 Hobby ZR-84 Partner D Galeb and Orao A few PC compatibles Misedo 85 Lira 512 Oric Nova 64 Novel ET-188 DOCUMENTATION!!! Lola 8 I8085 16KiB ROM 6KiB RAM 600DM Lola 8A i8085 980DM 24KiB ROM 16KiB RAM 320x200 pix, 3 channels Galeb 6502 ~1400DM 16KiB ROM 9KiB RAM 96x48 pix, 1 channel Galeb 101 (early) Orao Orao 102 (early) Orao MR102 2013 6502 ~1250DM 16KiB RAM 16KiB ROM 256x256 pix, 32x32 chr 1 channel Orao+ 6502 64KiB RAM 32KiB ROM 640x400 pix, 80x25 chr 1 channel 6502 32KiB RAM 16KiB ROM 256x256 pix, 32x32 chr 1 channel Orao 2007, 2008 IDE interface SID sound TMS9918A video http://www.deltasoft.com.hr/retro/index.htm Ei Pecom 32 and 64 CPD 1802B 5V7 32/64KiB RAM 16KiB ROM 240x216 pix, 40x24 chr 2 channels Hobby ZR-84 Z80A ~300DM 4KiB RAM 12KiB ROM 128x48 pix, 64x16 chr Misedo 85 Re-branded Tandy Color Computer 2 Oric Nova 64 Re-branded Oric Atmos, but with 64KiB RAM ZX Keyboards CP/M machines TIM 011 PC compatibles Ei Lira 512 Novkabel ET-188 So, what happened to all those computers? ZX vs C64 vs CPC vs Atari vs ... The promise of a school computer Old Yugoslav home computers today ● Emulators for most machines exist ● Pecom Emulator (part of MESS), Miodrag Milanović (he was working many other east-european computers emulators), http://micko-wip.blogspot.com/2008/11/pecom-64.html ● Work is ongoing on Lola 8A emulator (ROMS were extracted only a few months ago) ● A lot of individuals (including people at Once Upon a Byte) are trying to save as many about those machines as they can ● They can be seen in several computer history museums in former Yugoslavia The End... (References) ● Jelica Protić, DeJan Ristanović: Building Computers in Serbia: The First Half of the Digital Century, ComSIS, Volume 8, Issue 3, 2011 ● Računari, Svet KompJutera, Moj Mikro and other Yugoslav magazines from the 80's – personal collection – http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/yu/reviJe.php ● “The Ultimate Galaksija Talk”, Tomaž Šolc, http://www.tablix.org/~avian/blog/articles/galaksiJa/ ● Wikipedia ● Caricatures by Predrag Milićević, used with his permission ● Personal experience :) .